Rooting the HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box

You might wonder why you need to root the Android TV box in the first place. Well, I also never thought about this, until the recent Chinese version of Q5ii firmware taken away the Google Play Store, and I need root access to restore the Google Play Store in the HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box.

In order to gain root access of the HiMedia Q5ii from your computer, you need to put connect them to the same local network. Then, as usual, you'll need the famous Android Debug Bridge (ADB.exe) which is distributed in the Android SDK Tools in Android Developers website. All Android developers and/or hackers should already have this Android SDK Tools in their computers.

Alternatively, you can also install ADB in your computer by downloading and installing the Minimal ADB and Fastboot package from XDA Developers website.

If until this point, you don't know what I am talking about, and you have no idea what is "root", you should not continue. This is because rooting an Android device, if not handled properly, might introduce risk and damage to your Android device.

If you still keen to continue, then copy these 3 required files to a new folder in your computer:

• adb.exe
• AdbWinApi.dll
• AdbWinUsbApi.dll

Then, we need the "su" binary and the Superuser.apk.

Download Superuser-3.2-arm-signed.zip here, unzip the file, and copy these 2 files into the folder where you put ADB just now:

• su
• Superuser.apk

Then, you need to find out the IP address of your HiMedia Q5ii Android TV box and use ADB to connect to its port 5555.

Go to Windows command prompt by executing "cmd" in Run...

Go to your folder with ADB, and issue the following commands:

• adb connect your_himedia_ip_address:5555
• adb root
• adb remount

An example of the command issuing and respond is as below...

Then continue with the following commands:

• adb push su /system/bin
• adb push su /system/xbin
• adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
• adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
• adb shell chmod 4755 /system/xbin/su

And finally, reboot your HiMedia Android TV box with this command:

• adb shell reboot

After the reboot, you should be able to gain the root access to your HiMedia Android TV box now.